All posts tagged ‘Drew Goddard’

In the case of The Cabin in the Woods, the new horror movie send-up, you might say it’s a Whedon half-breed. The man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well as the upcoming The Avengers, co-wrote and produced Cabin. But Whedon’s protégé, Drew Goddard, co-wrote the script with Whedon and makes his directorial debut with this homage to and/or parody of the kids-in-the-woods slasher genre, which stars Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth (Cabin was shot before he was seen in Thor), Jesse Williams, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

So you might say The Cabin in the Woods, which opens Friday in theaters nationwide, has only half its foot in the Whedonverse. But fans, don’t be too worried. Goddard, a self-described “world’s biggest Joss Whedon fan,” has written for and produced shows such as Buffy, Dollhouse and Angel, not to mention Alias and Lost. He also wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield.

Note the Rubik's Cube design. This is more than your typical teens-in-the-woods slasher movie.

I asked Goddard some questions about The Cabin in the Woods, his friendship and working relationship with Whedon, and whether this monster movie was in any way inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. (By the way, Cabin is rated R and fairly gory, so it’s not a good one to bring the young-uns.)

Wired: How far back do you go with Joss? When and where did you meet?

Drew Goddard:[speaking by telephone from Minneapolis] I guess it goes back around 10 years now. My first job as a writer was that he hired me as staff writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s really where my formative years in learning the craft and learning his business came from, under his tutelage. I started as the world’s biggest Joss Whedon fan. When I first saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer in college, it was like a bomb went off. It really felt like, “Oh, here’s someone doing the most interesting storytelling that I’ve ever seen in my life. And I have to be a part of it.” It was definitely a dream come true to work for him.

Wired: What was your working relationship like? How did you write the film?

Goddard: We just got along from the beginning. Our relationship evolved over the years. And really, Cabin was just the two of us trying to entertain each other. We were just two guys talking about how much they loved horror films and wanting to make one of their own. That’s really what Cabin was. We didn’t pitch it. We just sat and wrote the movie we wanted to watch. And it sort of just sprung from there.